In West German Patent Specification No. DE-PS 27 25 796 an electric socket is described, comprising male contacts enclosed in a housing of thermoplastic material. A socket of this kind must be tightly enclosed in order to avoid environmental influences which can adversely affect the electric conductors.
If conductive connections are encapsulated in a plastic sheath by injection moulding, the essential thing is, particularly in the case of long, mechanically flexible, flat or short-distanced conductive connections, to take measures which guarantee that the terminal ends will be arranged within close tolerance limits in their predetermined positions, and that the conductive connections themselves will be embedded in the plastic sheath in their desired positions. According to the prior art, positioning pins are provided for that purpose in the injection mould, pressing, for example, on the conductive connections and holding these in a desired position in the mould. After the plastic sheath has been injection moulded around the conductive connections, they are exposed at the point where the pins had been pressing on the conductive connections. At these points, environmental influences can act on the conductive connections. In the course of time, the conductive connections may suffer damages, particularly when the component is being used, such as in the engine space of a motor vehicle where there is a damaging atmosphere. It would be very labour-intensive and costly to subsequently close each of the exposed parts of the conductive connections separately. Apart from that, the success of this measure would be dubious, since these parts tend to be small.